Revenue at augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI) company Perfect grew 22.1% year on year for the first nine months of 2022, said the company Wednesday. As of Sept. 30, the software-as-a-service company for the beauty and fashion industries had 151 key customers, up from 137 in the prior-year period; brand clients grew from 450 to 483, it said. “Despite the prolonged sales cycles in new business expansion driven by macroeconomic uncertainties" and foreign exchange volatility, "we believe that first-time buyer hesitation is only temporary and mostly driven by the lack of clarity in near-term macroeconomic outlook,” said CEO Alice Chang. The company, which listed on the New York Stock Exchange Oct. 31, hopes to “strike a balance between growth and profitability,” said Chief Strategy Officer Pin-Jen Chen. AR/AI cloud solutions and subscription revenue grew 31% to $27.3 million vs. the first nine months of 2021, driven by demand for the company’s online virtual product try-on offerings from its brand customers, plus an increase in monthly active subscribers. Ad revenue dropped 22.2% to $1.4 million, it said.

Global business spending on AI-enabled financial fraud detection and prevention will exceed $10 billion globally in five years, up from $6.5 billion this year, said a Monday Juniper research study. AI-enabled fraud detection and prevention platforms use AI to monitor transactions and identify fraudulent transaction patterns, reducing fraud risks by blocking transactions in real-time, Juniper said. The ability of AI to recognize fraudulent payment trends at scale is critical to providing improved fraud prevention, it said.

Connected ball technology will be used during FIFA World Cup 2022 to facilitate officials’ decision-making, said a Wednesday S&P Global report. The official match balls will use a motion sensor that tracks every touch at 500 times per second and transmits movement data to video officials. The flow of information from the connected ball is supported by semi-automated offside technology, an artificial intelligence-based video review system that can detect the movement of players and accurately judge on-pitch violations, S&P said. The addition of the connected ball will present “a real test” for soccer's video assistant review systems, which have experienced problems since the technology started to be deployed in national leagues, S&P said. Critics of the technology cited its impact on the flow of the game and how officials used it to interpret important in-play decisions. The World Cup runs Sunday-Dec. 18.

An exploratory AI research concept from Meta would let users create a digital painting “without ever picking up a paintbrush" or instantly generate illustrations to accompany a storybook's words, the company blogged Thursday. The Make-A-Scene tool “turns ideas into art,” enabling people to create images using text prompts and freeform sketches, the company said. Previous imaging-generating AI systems used text descriptions as input, but results could be hard to predict, it said. The text input “a painting of a zebra riding a bike” might not reflect exactly what the creator envisioned; the bicycle could be facing sideways or the zebra could be too large or small, Meta said. Make-A-Scene captures the scene layout to enable nuanced sketches as input. The model focuses on learning key aspects of the imagery that are more likely to be important to the creator, like objects or animals, it said. Make-A-Scene isn’t just for artists, Meta said: “We believe it could help everyone better express themselves.”

Norwegian AI company Elliptic Labs announced a “significant expansion” of its technology agreement with Lenovo to supply the PC OEM with software-only “human presence detection” sensors for a larger portion of its "laptop product portfolio." Human presence detection is a security and convenience feature that enables touch-free logins by authorized users to a laptop and also can lock the device or put it in sleep mode when the user walks away for a few minutes. Elliptic’s AI sensors are “uniquely positioned to become the de facto standard for human presence detection” for PCs, said the company Friday.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology plans a May 4 open meeting at 1 p.m. EDT of its National AI Advisory Committee to address the current state of U.S. competitiveness in AI germane to workforce, says a notice for Tuesday’s Federal Register. The committee also will discuss the potential “to use AI for workforce training,” and whether “societal issues are adequately being addressed,” it says. Members also will discuss enhancing AI opportunities for “diverse geographic regions” of the U.S., it says. Registration is required for the virtual meeting, which begins at 1 p.m. EDT. The Commerce Department announced the appointment of 27 members to the committee last week, including executives from Amazon, Google, IBM and Microsoft (see 2204140052).

Executives from Google, Amazon, Microsoft and IBM will join President Joe Biden’s artificial intelligence advisory committee, the Commerce Department announced Thursday. Commerce announced the appointment of 27 members to the National Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee, which advises the president and the National AI Initiative Office. Google Vice Chair James Manyika, Amazon Web Services Vice President-Database, Analytics and Machine Learning Swami Sivasubramanian, Microsoft Vice President Ashley Llorens, IBM Chief Privacy Officer Christina Montgomery and BSA|The Software Alliance CEO Victoria Espinel made the list.

IRobot launched an educational robot based on its Roomba i3 Series platform, it said Tuesday. Create 3 is designed to give educators and advanced makers an “out of the box” alternative to costly and labor-intensive robotics kits that require assembly and testing. The launch coincides with iRobot’s National Robotics Week, running through Sunday, that’s designed to “share the excitement of robotics” through in-person and virtual events. “Instead of cleaning people's homes," the Create 3 robot promotes "higher-level exploration for those seeking to advance their education or career in robotics,” the company said.

DOD should issue guidance and agreements that “define roles and responsibilities” for artificial intelligence collaboration, the GAO recommended Wednesday. DOD believes AI will “transform warfare, and failure to adopt AI technology could hinder national security,” the GAO said. The agency recommended DOD guidance, a comprehensive strategy and a “high-level plan or roadmap for its AI inventory process.” DOD concurred with all of GAO’s recommendations. Legislators and agencies have been exploring how to define AI standards.

U.S. spending on AI will double by 2025, topping $120 billion, based on a 26% compound annual growth rate over the next four years, reported IDC Thursday. The U.S. already has more than half of all AI spending worldwide, it said. Retail will remain the largest U.S. industry for AI spending throughout the forecast period, while professional services, media, and securities and investment services will have the fastest growth, each with CAGRs exceeding 30%, it said. "The greatest potential benefit for the use of AI remains its use in developing new business, and building new business models," said IDC analyst Mike Glennon.